Sugar Secrets…& Luck

by Mel Sparke

  “Oh.” said OIlie in funereal tones, patting his friend on the back. “Now I understand…”

  Kerry blinked hard and began to relax. She’d done it-subtly slowing down, speeding up, hauling OIlie back, pushing Tasha forward, until the six of them stood in perfect pairs right up at the barrier, awaiting the next empty Chillerama car trundling their way.

  In front of her and OIlie were Tasha and Matt; behind stood Peter and Anna.

  Very cosy, thought Kerry proudly. Perfect partners for cuddling up if it gets scary.

  Then her smile faded. In her haste to fix up Peter and Anna, she’d completely forgotten the fact that Tasha and Matt had a mutual loathing for each other, dating back to a past, disastrous romantic interlude. They managed to get on bearably well in company now, but shoving them together as a couple was a nightmare for both of them as she could now see from their strained faces.

  Oh, poor Matt, Kerry winced, and it’s his birthday too!

  OIlie didn’t seem to notice; he was caught up in a conversation with Peter. Or rather, Peter was bending his ear about how great a rugby team the All Blacks were, while OIlie, she noticed, was wearing a fixed smile and nodding a lot.

  Starting to panic with the responsibility of it all, Kerry looked around at Anna for reassurance and found instead another drawn face.

  “Are you all right?” she asked, bending forward to speak almost directly into Anna’s ear.

  The babble of excited voices all around them in the queue for Chillerama was so loud it was hard to be heard.

  “To be honest, Kerry, not really,” Anna replied, bending close to her friend’s ear in return.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Kerry, alarmed.

  “Listen,” said Anna, talking closer to her ear and in quieter tones. “I know he’s Sonja’s brother, and I know you’ve known him for years, but Peter’s really creeping me out.”

  Kerry’s pulse started racing. This wasn’t what Sonja would want to hear, not by a long shot.

  “How? I mean why?”

  “At first-and don’t be annoyed with me-I just thought he was a bit arrogant,” Anna whispered. “But now… well, you know that octopus-thing Ollie and the boys went on?”

  Kerry nodded.

  “I think he’s doing an impression of it. He keeps trying to put his arm around my waist or my shoulders every five seconds!”

  A wave of guilt swept over Kerry. She’d felt uncomfortable enough when Sonja was trying to push her together with Ollie and she’d been mad about Ollie.

  Poor Anna wasn’t remotely interested in Peter, but here she was, trying to do Sonja’s dirty work and force them together.

  At the back of her mind too, Kerry couldn’t help thinking how disappointed she was in Peter, after all those years of harbouring a girlish crush on him. Now she was old enough, and being completely honest, she could see him for what he really was: a pompous, self-centred show-off with a humour bypass. Automatically, she felt herself reach for Ollie’s hand and squeeze it gratefully.

  Something, Kerry thought, has to be done.

  “Anna, look-isn’t that that girl that comes into the café; the one standing along the track from us?” said Kerry, hauling Anna forward in front of her and pointing to no one in particular.

  “Where? Who?” asked Anna, finding herself standing on the platform edge between Matt and Tasha.

  Just then, the next set of cars came trundling into view. Kerry, in her frazzled state, had hoped to put Anna out of harm’s way with Matt, while she jumped in behind with Tasha, forsaking her boyfriend and leaving him partnered with Peter.

  In the scramble and bustle for seats, however, it worked out that Anna was indeed with Matt; but Kerry herself was with Ollie; while Ollie was looking slightly disturbed to see his sister sitting next to Peter in the car behind them.

  Tasha’s a big girl, Kerry consoled herself. If she can live in London and jet off round the world, she can deal with Peter Harvey, no problem…

  Matt felt prickles of excitement and nervousness break out down his arms as he held on to the bar that had slipped down automatically across his and Anna’s knees.

  How did that happen? he wondered, completely bemused by the fact that one second he was miserable, standing beside a girl who clearly disliked him while watching the girl he most cared about being slowly mauled by Sonja’s brother; the next, he had Anna sitting by his side, her leg almost-but not quite-touching his.

  The car lurched forward, touring them through room after room of eerie, swirling phantoms and hair-raising screams and groans. And all Matt could do was feel happier than he’d felt in weeks; all because she was so close to him…

  Suddenly, he leapt. Not because a holographic poltergeist had just loomed over them with an accompanying sound-effect roar; but because the very same poltergeist had made Anna leap sideways… right into him. Like a shot, his arm stretched comfortingly around her shoulders, holding her close. His heart soared when she didn’t pull away, even when the ghost had long slipped off into the shadows.

  Something had to ruin the moment, of course, and that moment was the harsh light of watery spring sunshine as the connected cars hurtled through a door and deposited the blinking passengers at an outdoor platform.

  Quick as a flash, Anna moved the warmth of her body away from him, and-without a backward glance-leapt out of the stationary car.

  Matt stumbled after her, his heart sinking.

  “Where did Matt go?” asked Kerry, scanning the crush of people all hovering around the photo stall at the end of the ride.

  “He’s right at the front, see?” Ollie pointed at their friend, who was already leaning on the counter, scouring the TV monitors that showed freeze-framed moments of every couple in every car that had just passed through the attraction. “Oh, yes-I see him. And where’s Anna?” “The loo, she said,” Ollie replied, looking around for any sign of his sister and Peter. They seemed to have vanished as everyone stumbled hurriedly out of the cars and out through the exit.

  “Look, there’s a space-let’s squeeze in!” said Kerry, pulling Ollie with her as she aimed to get closer to the counter.

  Behind it were the staff, busily selling blow-up snapshots of people looking either wide-eyed or with their eyes tightly shut.

  “Look-there’s us!” Ollie pointed at the screen image of them huddled together, caught in mid scream. “Number 423-remember that, Kerry!”

  “Number 423,” Kerry repeated as their image was replaced by someone else’s. “Matt, how did yours turn out? Give us a look!”

  Just as she stood on tiptoe and leaned over to sneak a peek at the photo Matt was holding, she heard Ollie yelp.

  She glanced back at her boyfriend and then transferred her gaze up to the screen, catching a momentary glimpse of what had alarmed him.

  There, in garish colour, was a couple caught in a passionate clinch-untroubled by passing ghosts and ghouls. The unmistakable blond hair definitely belonged to Peter, which meant the girl he was kissing was none other than Natasha.

  Matt saw the image too and was almost as stunned as Kerry and Ollie.

  But the vision of Peter and Tasha wrapped around each other gave him two reasons to smile. First, it meant that the loathsome Peter had transferred his affections away from Anna; second, it gave Matt the chance to slip his own photo away inside his pocket without his friends seeing it…

  CHAPTER 19

  THE FINAL CURTAIN

  “What about Zac?”

  Cat was stunned by the question.

  “What about Zac?” she replied, looking into Vikki’s questioning eyes.

  They were standing in the wings, dressed in their costumes as the single mothers they were playing in their short piece for the forthcoming community festival, waiting for Mr Patterson’s cue to go on stage for their first full run-through.

  “You haven’t thought about him for one second in all this, have you?”

  Cat was exhausted with all the emotions she’d felt during the last week. The
last thing she needed was one of her good friends hassling her.

  “But my dad’s just come back into my life! Zac doesn’t matter!”

  “Zac doesn’t matter?” hissed Vikki. “How can you say that? He’s this really sweet boy and you can’t even be bothered to tell him what’s going on?”

  “It’s not like that!” protested Cat. “If he really cared about me, he’d have phoned me to see why I stood him up on Tuesday!”

  “Wait-you stand him up and you expect him to do the chasing?” asked Vikki incredulously.

  “But my dad—”

  “Yeah, it’s brilliant and amazing that he’s back. Cat-I’m not denying that! I just think you have a really bad attitude when it comes to poor Zac. Couldn’t you spare him a two-minute phone call to tell him what is going on?”

  Cat fumed. How could Vikki lecture her like this? What did she know about anything?

  James, the stage manager, waved at them from the opposite wings. It was time to wait for their cue. Cat and Vikki both gave themselves a shake and got ready to go on.

  An old Oasis tune, Wonderwall, began to play. The two girls strolled soulfully out on to the stage. The lighting at this point was low, giving Cat the chance to scan the empty rows of seats in the auditorium.

  Where is he? she fretted, wondering where her dad could be. He’d promised faithfully to be there at the college at one o’clock, once they’d had time to have a costume fitting and make-up try-out. It had been 1.30 the last time Cat had checked her watch this Sunday afternoon.

  She turned to Vikki, knowing her opening line was coming up. It was torture staring into the dark eyes of her friend, knowing they’d just argued. But then they were meant to be actresses. They’d just have to get over it.

  “What’s going on? What’s happening?” said Cat, reciting the first line of her script.

  “YOU tell M£!” came a bellow from beyond the footlights.

  Cat froze, as did everyone else on and offstage. The only difference was Cat knew who the voice belonged to.

  “Dad?” she whispered, peering out into the rows of seats as she walked towards the edge of the stage.

  “What the HELL have you been saying to your mother?!” Eddie Osgood shouted, barging into the fixed seating as he stumbled down the aisle.

  “Dad? What are you talking about?” asked Cat in a panic. They’d been together the day before. She’d told him she’d left a note for her mum asking her to meet him.

  “That BITCH of a mother of yours-she doesn’t wanna know!”

  “Dad, please… Please just go back to the B&B. I’ll come after this is finished,” she begged, sensing everyone’s tension all around her.

  “Oh, yes! Just like your mother! Want to get RID of me!”

  “I-I don’t want to get rid of you, Dad! I just think we can talk about this later!” pleaded Cat, crouching down on the stage to see him better beyond the lights.

  “Later? What the hell’s the point? You don’t give a SHIT about me, about MY problems…”

  “Dad! Wh-what’s wrong with you? Why are you being like this?” Cat asked him in tearful confusion.

  He stumbled forward, pointing a finger at her. Suddenly, Cat realised with a sharp pang that her father was drunk.

  “Your damn mother-she won’t give me a PENNY! What does she want me to do-BEG?” he shouted at the top of his voice. “Well, she can go to HELL!”

  “Sir, I think you should leave now!” Jeff Patterson’s voice drifted down from the balcony where he’d been ready to monitor the run-through.

  “SHADDUP! I’m TALKING to my DAUGHTER!” Eddie Osgood yelled up at the voice telling him off.

  “Dad, please-just go now!” pleaded Cat, looking round frantically to see how she could get off the stage and down to him, but the most obvious staircase was blocked by scenery.

  “You STUPID little girl. You spoiled everything for me, with whaddever it was you said to that WITCH!!”

  “Dad!” exclaimed Cat, shaking like a leaf.

  She could hardly recognise him, with his face so contorted and spiteful. The man staring up at her looked like her father, but this obnoxious, hateful person had nothing in common with the sweet, caring parent she’d spent the week with.

  “OK, time to go,” came an assured male voice out of the shadows.

  Cat gasped as she saw Zac stride over to her father’s side and grasp him firmly under one elbow. At the same moment, the main door swished open as the weekend caretaker came bustling in. It was all over so quickly. Eddie Osgood hardly had time to protest as the two strong men propelled him speedily and efficiently out of the auditorium.

  “Are you OK, babes?” asked Vikki, wrapping her comforting arms round her trembling friend.

  Following Vikki’s lead, everyone drifted out of the wings and huddled around Cat protectively. It was as if they could all suddenly move again, after being turned to stone by a bad spell.

  “He-he was drunk,” Cat hiccuped in explanation as the tears began to fall. “He isn’t like that… he’s never been like that….”

  “I know,” murmured Vikki. “That was just the booze talking. Trouble is, it can make people say terrible things.”

  Cat buried her head in her hands, too stunned by her father’s behaviour to think straight, and too ashamed by it to look into the faces of her fellow students.

  And too afraid of the memories that were rushing back from her childhood; memories of a loving father who’d tuck her into bed with a story one night and who’d explode in a drunken rage then disappear for days on end the next.

  “I thought he’d changed!” Cat’s mind raced madly. “I wanted him to have changed!”

  She squeezed her eyes tighter shut, another thought suddenly slithering into the darkness of her mind.

  “My God-so Mum was right all along…”

  “Cat, he’s gone…” she heard a familiar, gentle voice say. “Are you-are you OK?”

  Opening her eyes slowly, Cat raised her head to look at Zac, who was staring back at her nervously, his eyes full of concern.

  She hesitated, reluctant-for a split second-to trust her heart to any man. But Zac hadn’t come to humiliate and hurt her like her father had done; if anything, he’d come to rescue her.

  “Yes, I’m OK, Zac,” Cat finally said, smiling a wobbly, watery smile in his direction and holding her arms out to him. “I’m OK now you’re here…”

  CHAPTER 20

  KNIGHT IN SHINING LADA…

  “There you go!” said Anna brightly, putting the two cappuccinos down in front of Peter and Natasha.

  “Thanks, Anna,” Tasha smiled up at her.

  Peter, on the other hand, said nothing and continued staring happily at Ollie’s undisputedly gorgeous sister.

  “Want another one?” Anna asked Sonja, pointing to Sonja’s empty cup.

  “No, no-I’m OK.”

  Sonja watched as her friend disappeared back behind the counter of the End-of-the-Line café. Now her dream had disappeared too-the dream of the cosy little foursome of herself and Owen and Peter and Anna. All that had disappeared when it had become obvious the day before that the Haunted House had turned into Cupid’s Palace for Peter and Tasha.

  It wasn’t that she was unhappy about them getting together. She liked Natasha a lot, always had. In many ways, they were more perfect together than Peter and Anna could ever have been. But…

  It would have been so nice, mused Sonja, turning round to see her brother gazing mushy-eyed at the serenely lovely Natasha, If Peter and Anna could have got together and come up for weekends to stay with me and Owen at our flat…

  The idea of her and Owen’s flat-though it was still just a figment of her imagination at the moment-made her shiver with pleasure. She decided to save that daydream for later.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be picking up Matt’s car today?” she asked Peter, suddenly remembering their transaction.

  “Change of plan-didn’t I tell you?” said Peter, without dragging his eyes aw
ay from Natasha.

  “No,” replied Sonja. “How come?”

  “He phoned this morning. Said he couldn’t sell it to me after all.”

  “Yeah?” frowned Sonja, figuring that Matt’s dad must have relented and offered to pay off his son’s debts instead of making him sell his precious car.

  “I’m not bothered,” shrugged Peter, reaching over and entwining his fingers around Natasha’s. “Think I fancy more of a four-wheel drive actually.”

  “Really? What kind?” asked Natasha, arching her finely plucked eyebrows with curiosity. “I did an ad for one of those in Japan a while ago!”

  Oh, well, I had no luck with my matchmaking. But it’s not all bad-at least Peter’s found someone he likes, thought Sonja as her brother drooled like a love-sick puppy over Ollie’s more composed twin sister. And at least Matt’s keeping his car…

  Coming out of the college gates, Cat’s heart skipped a beat or three when the driver of a car tried to get her attention.

  She’d ignored the tooting of the horn at first; she didn’t know anyone who drove an ancient, mustard-coloured Lada estate. But now, he was unmistakably waving at her.

  Is it Dad? she panicked, although she was pretty sure he’d left town since his dramatic blowup in the college auditorium the day before. She’d called her mother at lunchtime and found out that her father had checked out of his B&B and taken a taxi to the train station that morning, according to his landlady.

  A figure got out of the car and immediately all her muscles relaxed. It was Matt, grinning at her, and patting his new set of wheels.

  “Cat, would you like the honour of being the first of my friends to get a lift in my latest dream machine?”

  “Well, it might ruin my reputation, being seen in a rust-bucket like this,” smiled Cat, pulling the passenger door open. “Still, it beats walking home in the rain!”

  “I dread what it’s going to do to my reputation,” grumbled Matt, “but at least I’ve cleared my debts. And this thing may be an old banger, but there’s a ton of room in the back for all my decks and stuff for work.”